The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for automatically forming and sewing a hem in the free edge of a looped or circular article of clothing.
It has heretofore been difficult to automatically and mechanically perform the type of finishing sewing operation wherein a looped or tubular article of clothing such as a shirt or skirt has the free end thereof folded and hemmed at a constant width. This type of operation is referred to as a "stretch-sewing" operation. Specifically, since the article of clothing has a looped shape, the operations of forming a proper fold automatically and then transferring the article to a sewing machine is difficult, and has normally been performed manually by a skilled worker, even when the other sewing operations could be performed fully automatically and mechanically. Thus, this stretch-sewing process has heretofore been a very inefficient operation.